Towelhead - Turning Reality Into A Cartoon

Oct

12

Towelhead - Turning Reality Into A Cartoon

≡ Category: Comedy, Drama, Mainstream, Movie Reviews By Country, Recommended, United States |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Drama/ Comedy/ Mainstream
Director: Alan Ball
Year: 2007

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE

Trust director Alan Ball (American Beauty) to take a realistic situation fraught with dramatic tension and turn it into a joke. As he did in the Oscar winning American Beauty, Ball encourages broad performances and exaggerates reality until 90% of the threat and impact implicit in the situations is diluted.

Let’s take Towelhead. In the very beginning of the movie, 13-year-old Jasira (Jasira Maroun) is having her bikini line shaved by the boyfriend of her mother. Now, we are being asked to believe that a 13-year-old girl in America could be naive enough to think that was okay, but I’ll go along with that. After all, she’s the daughter of a Lebanese man who apparently resolutely refuses to tell her or come to grips with anything that’s germane to growing up as a beautiful young girl in new millennium America. It’s possible that she would be so sheltered that she wouldn’t know. Also, when her mother Gail (Maria Bello) finds out that her boyfriend shaved Jasira, Gail blames Jasira. Actually, that’s believable. Woman who are trained to be subservient and to always put their man first actually do blame their daughters for that kind of thing. Horribly selfish women also do this, which describes Gail to a T. Again, that’s believable. So, what’s my problem?

The way the boyfriend manipulates Jasira is a little off, but it’s not too bad, but when Gail blames Jasira, Alan Ball directs her to overact like crazy, and puts words in her mouth that no woman has ever said or would ever say. He exaggerates like a madman. This tendency continues through the picture. Gail’s father, Rifat (Peter Macdissi) is a caricature of a Lebanese man. Now, mind you, the general outlines of his character are believable, but they are blown completely out of proportion.

And it’s not that either Peter Macdissi or Maria Bello are bad actors. On the contrary. The problem is that Alan Ball has directed them to amp their performances up to glass-breaking pitch.

Ironically, relative newcomer Summer Bishil (Jasira Maroun) is heartbreakingly believable as Jasira. She isn’t dumb, but she’s clueless, thanks to parental neglect, she’s cursed/gifted with a rampaging sexuality, and she’s breathtakingly sweet. All of these things come through in Bishil’s performance. If Hollywood can figure out what to do with her and put her in some good movies, she’s going to do incredible things.

Oh, I’ve forgotten to tell you about the plot. Jasira, after getting shaved by the boyfriend of her mother, gets sent to live with her Lebanese father in suburban Houston. Unfortunately, she lives two doors down from Travis Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart), a child molesting pervert in training. She also gets called all sorts of racial epithets in school. Naturally, a boy at school takes a sexual interest in Jasira. He’s not a complete jerk. He actually likes Jasira, but he’s a teenage boy, so naturally he wants to get into her pants. The only person who seems interested in Jasira as a person is next door neighbor Melina Hines (Toni Collette). She acts as a surrogate mother, providing a safe place and vital information.

In description, this sounds rather compelling. So, why am I only giving Towelhead three stars? Frankly, the material needed to be shaped with an adult, subtle sensibility, heavily grounded in reality. That way, it would have been devastating, but to be honest, it also would have been much less commercial. When you make reality into a cartoon, it distances the audience, so they can pat themselves on the back for their taste in edgy entertainment, but they don’t have to truly grapple with the painful emotions inherent in the material. Do I think director Alan Ball calculated his film to be shallow? No, I think Ball had only the best intentions. The problem is that Alan Ball himself is shallow.

Especially in the beginning of the picture, I was annoyed and dismayed to see Ball distort the edgy situations into farce, trivializing the very real situation that was unfolding. Time and time again, he would frame a situation in ways that were daftly unrealistic, reminiscent of bad television, which is of course where Ball comes from (a cheap shot, I know, but telling, nonetheless). I’ll have to admit though, when Ball manipulated his human chess pieces into a completely artificial but explosive situation for the climax of the film, I was entertained in spite of myself.

For the edgy and original story (courtesy of author Alicia Erian, who wrote the novel the screenplay was based on) and the pulpy entertainment value, Towelhead just manages to eke out a bare recommendation. Ironically, Towelhead succeeds best as exploitation.

Let me put it another way. In terms of the events that transpire, Towelhead lives up to it’s incendiary title, but in terms of their depiction, Towelhead manages all the authenticity of a screwball comedy. When you’re talking about stuff like a 13-year-old getting raped, that’s pretty tasteless.

If you aren’t too picky about realistically modulated performances and situations, and enjoy an edgy and melodramatic plot, you might want to check out Towelhead. As a plus, you’ll get to check out star-in-the-making Jasira Maroun. But as a searing, no holds barred exploration of racism and sexual coming of age, Towelhead is close to being a complete bust.